Rock Pebbler? What's a freakin Rock Pebbler?!

[wazookeeper]

Last night I made a first attempt at introducing Perl cockatiel to Beryl rock pebbler. I laid down on the bed with a pile of gardening catalogs and both birds.

Perl started right off with overtures of friendship, but Beryl is afraid of her. Perl immediately noticed Beryl's fear and didn't press the issue. She was amazingly patient. Eventually after a very long time they wound up a few inches from each other, each chewing on their own seed catalog. As long as Perl stayed at least 6" away, Beryl stayed calm. Any time Perl tried to get closer, Beryl backed away and Perl immediately gave up.

So I was quite pleased with the result. I will work with them some more and I'm pretty confident that eventually Beryl will figure out that Perl is harmless and they will be great buddies. Woo-hoo!

[wazookeeper]

Alas, Beryl the rock pebblar has never become friends with my cockatiel. She will tolerate Perl, nothing more. At least I can leave them out of their cages together, Perl just has to make a wide berth around Beryl if she wants to walk past her on the foraging tree.

Today I had an amazing marvelous breakthrough with Beryl. I've been training her to "step up" for a treat. It's been a long slow process. But today, she not only climbed onto my wrist for a nutriberry, she stayed on and contentedly nibbled her treat while I walked across the room and sat at my desk. That's the first time she's stood calmly on my hand and let me carry her away from her cage.

But wait, there's more! After she finished her treat, she slowly climbed up my arm almost to my shoulder. She satfor some time at the edge of my T-shirt sleeve, gazing into my face and making happy chat.

Furthermore, she stayed calmly on my arm as I slowly stood up from my desk chair. I then intended to walk her back to her cage but at that point she flew back on her own. From her cage, she continued to look at me and do the "happy mumble".

It's taken a very long time to get her to trust me -- but I'm finally making progress!!!

[BigBird]

Here is a pic of another breed in the same family as the Rock pebbler. They are of similar personality to the Rock Pebbler. Very independant. My barnaby I bought as a hand reared chick, however he will only get on my finger if he wants a lift to somewhere in the house quickly or the kitchen light has been turned out and needs to get back to his cage, ie not fly in the dark! He is the biggest pig, have to share my dinner with him and he gets the cranks if I try and eat some of it, so have to put aside a bit of egg and mash potato for him only. Is out of his cage 24 hours a day, flies around the house chasing the kitten around. In fact since we got the kitten Barnaby has really come out of his shell. I was all excited about this new hand reared baby, but he really didnt want much to do with us. So we just let him do his own thing, but since the arrival of the cat a few months ago he has become much friendlier, my head is a landing strip all the time, he follows me around the house, sits on my pc when Im in the computer room or on my shoulder/head when Im watching TV, chats to me in the kitchen when Im cooking, tells me all about it. Bit of an attitude, but I find that quite endearing about him. Like tiki said in an earlier post, they are independant so if it seems alouf at the beginning just be patient, you will soon be wanting it to bugger off and leave you alone!!!! My dad found the joy of trying to change light fittings with a curious superb parrot on his head, one claw on the light and the other on his jumper! Ive got five of them all up, two outside pairs and good old barnaby. They are endangered here because of the awful minor birds that are endangering all of our native birds, and this will be my first year breeding them, hopefully!!! Good luck with your pebbler, they are beautiful! Might get one myself!!

[BigBird]

I re-read your last post Wazookeeper. How did you train it to step up. My partner and i have had no success getting Barnaby to happily step up in almost a year, only time he will is if he wants a lift out of a room to his cage or from my shoulder to my dinner plate!! He is so food obsessive that we think if we can get him step up we can bribe him to do other tricks!

[wazookeeper]

BigBird, so far she will only step up for a treat. And it took MONTHS of patient attempts to even get her to do that.

I started with "you can eat this treat out of my right hand if you let me rest my left hand a few inches away from you on your perch". Then gradually moved the left hand closer over a period of weeks. Then "you can eat this treat out of my right hand if you lean out and stretch over my left hand to get it". Then ". . . if you put one of your feet on my left hand you will be able to lean and balance and get the treat".

And of course each time we have to go through a charade where she looks at the treat, decides she doesn't want it if it involves touching my icky old hand, and then theatrically pretending to ignore me while studiously trying to figure a way to get the treat. Finally she caves in, mutters some birdie curses, bites my hand, then climbs up on it to get the treat.

It's only a week or two ago that she stopped cursing and biting me before stepping up for her treat.

[BigBird]

Cool, well done. Will start doing it with barnaby. Follows me around the house like a dog, will get on my hand if he is half asleep and not in his cage, let me pat his nose when he is in a good mood, sit on my head and shoulders, but wont step up or on by command. If he is feeling fiesty I can say 'tell me all about it" and he will jut his neck forward and make birdy noises at me for as long as I will stand there and listen, i will imitate them back to him and we have a good ole conversation. To test his mood I wave my finger in front of him, saying "do you wanna fight, do you wanna fight" If he does he will make bird noises and try and bite my finger, if he doesnt he will sit there looking stupid at me! He's a stubborn little ****, but gotta love him! Quite a character!

[birdlady49]

Congratulations! Did you really want us to talk you out of bringing him home?

I haven't seen rock pebblers in years. They're wonderful little birds!